On This Date, August 27th, in 1967: The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein died of a sleeping pill overdose. News of Epstein’s death reached The Beatles while they were on their now infamous retreat with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The back story of Brian Epstein’s life while he worked with The Beatles is actually pretty intriguing and crazy and obsessive and all that good stuff. I recommend checking out the book The Love You Make by Beatles’ camp insiders Peter Brown and Steven Gaines for lots of good dirt on Epstein and the whole band. The book gets a bad rap for being such a sordid tell-all, but you know what they say, “they wouldn’t print it if it wasn’t true.”
“Neon Angels On The Road to Ruin…”
Few true tales have the power to compel and transport the reader quite like the life story of a bona fide Rock & Roll Survivor. Of Rock’s innumerable legends with stories worth telling, so many of them – Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison; the list is endless, really – never lived long enough to write their histories in their own words. And of those that have written autobiographies, no one ever really gets – or takes advantage of – the opportunity to go back and revisit his or her life on the written page, updating the tale or adding details that were perhaps forgotten or too painful to tell the first time around. Cherie Currie, former lead singer of the teenage all-girl rock band The Runaways is an exception to that rule.
Continue reading Must Read Book: Neon Angel, A Memoir of a Runaway By Cherie Currie →
The Doctor Is In
Last summer, I spent a few minutes penning a witty foreword to a Rock & Roll Tell-all biography called A Shot of Poison, written by my friend Christopher Long. A Shot of Poison is crammed full of Chris’s true-life escapades and various forms of torture that he endured while working as part of Poison’s road crew for years and years. Since part of Chris’s duties involved being the handler/ babysitter/whipping boy for bassist Bobby Dall, a good part of the book concerns what a Doucheasaurus Rex Dall is. But there is a lot of other good dirt that you are not going to know even if you are the world’s biggest Poison fan, and it was a fun read! Here’s what Amazon.com has to say:
Continue reading A Shot of Poison Coming Soon to a Bookseller Near You! →
Do you know who Russell Brand is? He’s pretty (in)famous in England, but over here I guess he’s best known for his role as the womanizing rock star, Aldous Snow in Judd Apatow’s wildly hilarious comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, or for causing a massive and wonderful ruckus as the “controversial” one-time host of MTV’s otherwise lame Video Music Awards a few years back. He also does a righteous stand-up comedy routine, which I have seen on HBO. Also, he’s dangerously good-looking – definitely my type, physically. I love him so much.
Continue reading Excellent Book I Am Reading Right Now: My Booky Wook By Russell Brand →
Despite the fact that it has possibly the longest title of any book ever written, I was able to read Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone (The Ramones Years). A Punk Love Story – the gritty new biography by Dee Dee Ramone’s long-suffering ex-wife Vera Ramone King – in the 3 hours it took me to fly from Chicago to Newark. Let me tell you, I loved this book!
Continue reading Must Read Rock Book: Poisoned Heart By Vera Ramone King →
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